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Sex offenders moving into Iowa don't have to register

An Iowa lawmaker wants to end a loophole in the sex offender registry law.

Updated: 6:30 PM CDT Oct 11, 2013

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Sex offenders moving into Iowa don't have to register

An Iowa lawmaker wants to end a loophole in the sex offender registry law.

Updated: 6:30 PM CDT Oct 11, 2013

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Sex offenders moving into Iowa don't have to register

An Iowa lawmaker wants to end a loophole in the sex offender registry law.

Updated: 6:30 PM CDT Oct 11, 2013

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WEBVTT Convicted sex offenders are required by law to register with the state. And appear on the state's sex offender website. But some convicted sex offenders don't. And its perfectly legal. KCCI's Vanessa Peng shows us the loophole. And the plans to close it. Representative Dean Fischer says sex offenders should register no matter when or where they committed their crimes. 21:31 "OUTRAGE AND DISGUST." Iowa legislator Dean Fischer is shocked... that this man, 52- year-old Stewart Smith, moved to Marshalltown without his name appearing on Iowa's Sex Offender Registry. 21:14 "WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN WHEN HE CAME TO IOWA THAT HE HAD BEEN CONVICTED OF CHILD SEX ABUSE." 19 Smith is listed on the National Sex offender registry...for a sex crime he committed in 1989 in Minnesota... but is not on Iowa's Sex Offender Registry. 21:44 "I'M OUTRAGED TO THINK THAT PEOPLE LIKE THAT COULD BE HERE WE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THEM." 48 According to documents, Smith has been charged with allegedly two counts of child stealing in Tama County last winter... The documents state Smith, "did unlawfully and willfully commit child stealing by forcibly or fraudulently taking, decoying, and/or enticing..." an eight-year-old child. 19:34 "IF AUTHORITIES HAD KNOWN HE WAS HERE THEY COULD HAVE BEEN WATCHING HIM FROM THE START." 38 Fisher says he plans to change that...and is working on a bill that will require all convicted sex offenders moving here to register with the Iowa sex offender registry. 20:12 "WE'VE GOT TO KNOW WHO THESE PEOPLE ARE WHEN THEY MOVE INTO STATE, IF THEY'RE CONVICTED CHILD SEX OFFENDER WE NEED TO KNOW WHO THEY ARE." 18 Fischer says he plans to introduce the bill at the beginning of the legislative